


Homophobia

by TheNose



Category: Fruits Basket, Fruits Basket - Takaya Natsuki (Manga)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Homophobia, I've never posted anything before and I'm not sure how to tag this, Selfishness, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-30
Updated: 2019-08-30
Packaged: 2020-09-30 22:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20454551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNose/pseuds/TheNose
Summary: Was there another reason Kureno was seen as an outsider? A drabble.





	Homophobia

**Author's Note:**

> One of the many little joys of revisiting a series you read as a kid is noticing things you never thought of before. Sometimes you can't help wondering.

It's not as if they make an effort to keep it a secret.

They are together, always. You never see one without the other. There is a great deal of physical affection in the relationship, legs pressed between legs, arms around the neck, bodies squeezed together. Even the most casual observer can pick up on it. But while all of these things can be written off, there is one aspect of the relationship that cannot be overlooked.

Kureno and Akito sleep in the same room. There is only one bed in the room. You do the math.

Most people, at least the ones over a certain age, can do that math. And they never seem to like the results much.

Homosexuality is not well-regarded in many parts of the world. This, suffice to say, happens to be one of those parts.

Nobody blames Akito, of course, for any of this. Wealthy and powerful men often have certain...predilections, urges that need satisfying. Urges that others are expected to tolerate, in ways they would not if it were someone else, regardless of their own personal feelings. The head of the Sohma is no exception. Be thankful his aren't far worse.

He can do as he pleases. He is the head of the family. The zodiac are his to command. He is their God.

Kureno, on the other hand? Is not.

So he is subject to all of the things she gets to avoid. The whispers, the cold stares, the avoidance. On the rare occasions he is alone, no-one wants to talk to him. 

And it isn't as if he can tell them the truth.

Perhaps, even more than the broken curse, that is the reason for the distance between him and the others. Not just between him and the zodiac, him and the outside world, him and the rest of the Sohma. It is all of these things combined and more. It is a complete and total isolation.

And it's not as if most of them don't have similar feelings. Many of them do. The jokes about "keeping one another up all night" aren't always jokes, or at least they weren't always. But you aren't supposed to talk about these feelings. Other people aren't supposed to know about them. You aren't supposed to acknowledge they exist. Above all, you aren't supposed to take them seriously. You get what you need to get out of your system out, all your little youthful mistakes, and then you go find a nice girl and settle down.

He does not. He cannot. Well. He can, but that is precisely why he will not.

Perhaps they don't have to be so obvious. Perhaps, for decorum's sake, they could at least pretend that their relationship is supposed to be a secret. Perhaps then people could tolerate it more easily, tolerate him more easily. But she never thinks of that, never thinks of what their relationship is doing to him.

And why should she think of him, when she drags him out in public on her arm, when she sends him out in his bed clothes in the middle of the night to get a snack for her, or to answer the door for her in a state of partial undress? Why should she care how it affects him, the others' perception of him? She's never been taught to think of anyone else in her life.

It doesn't affect her in any way; she is protected by her status, by her privilege, and so she never thinks of it.

And so he tolerates the whispers, the cold stares he gets on the rare occasions he is allowed to venture out, what he knows they say about him when he isn't there, with the same bland acceptance he has for everything.

He has to.


End file.
